Trouw

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  Trouw is a Dutch daily newspaper, and its name is a word for fidelity, loyalty and allegiance. It is a cognate of the English adjective "true". Its founders picked it deliberately, to declare loyalty to God and country while German forces occupied the Netherlands. A newspaper that names itself after loyalty invites a test of that promise. What did it cost the people who produced and carried it? And how did a paper built on one church's convictions come to speak to readers far beyond that church?

  18

• 2. Underground Presses

  ›

  Trouw began in 1943 as an orthodox Protestant underground newspaper, started by members of the Dutch Protestant resistance. Paper was scarce, so the occupation years saw it appear only irregularly. The danger was far greater than the shortages. Hundreds of people involved in producing and distributing it were arrested and killed before the war ended.

  In 1944 German forces tried to end publication by rounding up some 23 of the couriers who carried the paper. They then issued an ultimatum to Trouw's leaders. The editors refused to give in, and every one of the captured couriers was executed. A co-founder of the paper, who was also a resistance member, was among those who lost their lives because of their work for it.

  7

• 3. Beyond the Pews

  ›

  The Reformed Churches in the Netherlands became the declared allegiance of the paper once it turned daily after the war. Then, in 1967, its chief editor made a public point of saying that Trouw was not meant only for Christians. It wanted to be a paper for everyone.

  The readership numbers show how real that shift was. In 1965-69% of readers belonged to one of the Reformed churches. By 1979 the share had fallen to 48%, and by 1999 it stood at 28%. In 2005 the paper described its own aim as wanting to "remain a newspaper rooted in a Christian tradition and to be a source of contemplation and inspiration for everyone, churchgoer or not, who feels a need for moral and spiritual orientation." The quoted words suggest a paper keeping its roots while widening its audience.

  895

• 4. Compact and Corporate

  ›

  At the end of the 20th century, Trouw sold a little over 133,000 copies. On the 3rd of February 2005 it changed from broadsheet to compact format, the size it still uses.

  Ownership changed too. In the summer of 2009, the Belgian publishing house De Persgroep bought a majority stake in the Dutch group PCM. The group was renamed De Persgroep Nederland, and Trouw sat alongside NRC Handelsblad, Het AD, Het Parool and de Volkskrant. NRC Handelsblad was sold before the summer of 2010. The owner took the name DPG Media in 2019, and Trouw has belonged to it since 2009.

  In 2012, Trouw received the European Newspaper Award. Its editor-in-chief today is Cees van der Laan, who leads a paper that began as a clandestine sheet in the occupied Netherlands.

  106241